During a four to five year period beginning in 2001, William Irey engaged in sex acts with girls aged four to sixteen, typically in Cambodian brothels. In some instances he had children flown to him from Cambodia to China. Irey photographed and videotaped his abuse and torture of the girls, and he used this material for personal pleasure and as currency to gain access to child pornography sites. In 2006 federal agents intercepted incriminating e-mails from Irey to one such site. During a search of his home, agents found a hard drive containing 1,200 photos of Irey abusing at least 50 underage girls, as well as hundreds of other explicit photos that did not show his face. He was arrested in December 2006 and charged with sexually exploiting children. He plead guilty in July 2007 and subsequently was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison. The government appealed the sentence and eventually had the sentence increased to 30 years, the statutory maximum.